


THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

by ivorygates



Series: Across Five Aprils [7]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, Daniverse, Episode: s01e06 The First Commandment, Fix-It, Gen, Girl!Daniel, Missing Scene, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-27
Updated: 2007-06-27
Packaged: 2017-11-25 20:19:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/642590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivorygates/pseuds/ivorygates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She'd always thought she liked learning things. She's not sure she wants to learn the things she's learning now.</p><p>Becoming SG-1 is a learning curve...</p>
            </blockquote>





	THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

_THREE MONTHS AGO:_

Nine SG Teams means 36 people. All highly-trained specialists, and they have to come from somewhere.

Military specialists, of course.

Ever try to find an Air Force officer with a background in archaeology or anthropology?

But considering that any culture they find on the other side of the Gate is probably going to be Earth-derived, the First Contact teams all really need to have a cultural specialist with them.  
  
Although General Hammond really doesn't want any more civilians attached to Gate Teams if he can avoid it.

She's a special case.

General Hammond asks them all for their recommendations, of course. Because in addition to the Gate Teams, there are a lot of support jobs to fill.

Cataloguing and Translation, for what the Gate Teams bring back.

Archaeo-Anthropology and Linguistics, to help them make sense of it all, and to brief them before they go out.

These positions _can_ be filled by civilians. Provided civilians can be found who are (a) qualified (b) want the job and (c) pass the security checks.

(B) and (C) aren't her problem, though. She just has to come up with a list of recommendations for (A), and let God, General Hammond, and the US Air Force sort out the rest.

Jack and Sammy are making recommendations on the military and scientific side. Sammy knows a lot of scientists. Jack… well, Jack knows a lot of people who are good at killing people.

She wishes -- she hopes -- it won't come down to that ever again.

She knows that's what Jack does. What Teal'c does. Or, at least, what they've both been trained to do, because actually, fortunately, neither of them has been doing much of it lately.

It bothers her. Not the lack of killing, but the potential for it.

She knows that's hypocritical, considering she's not only killed -- in battles -- but murdered.

Killing Sha're was murder.

She tries not to think about it, and most of the time she succeeds, because she's brutally busy. In addition to her missions with SG-1, she's setting up two departments -- Cataloguing and Translation and Archaeo-Anthropology -- and doing the Orientation Lectures for the new people who come into the SGC each week. And in her spare time -- her _spare_ time -- she handles everything that their slowly-growing pool of experts can't figure out, since she's still the most-qualified person here in alien cultures, and the only one who knows any of the _Goa'uld_ dialects.

She's trying to teach the other specialists, but the going is slow.

Why are most people so abysmally _stupid?_

#

"When's the last time you got a decent night's sleep?" Sammy asks, sitting down.

She raises her head from her arms, looks around the commissary. Sighs. "What time is it?"

Sammy brushes her hair out of her eyes and hands her her glasses. She puts them on and sits up. Reaches for her coffee. It's cold.

"It's morning," Sammy says. "What time did you get here?"

"Ah… actually, I haven't left yet," she admits. She hates telling Sammy that. Sammy will frown at her.

She does. "Dani--"

"There's so much work to do," she protests.

With the influx of new teams, SG-1 is currently supposed to go through the Gate once a month, though in fact they go through more often than that, if you count support and rescue missions. And the times when General Hammond pulls another Team off the line to send them instead, simply because they have the most experience dealing with what's Out There. It doesn't sound like a lot, but each time they open the Gate, it's the equivalent of launching a Lunar mission, and the SGC is doing it for eight -- no, nine -- teams now; there's so much work to do that they're expanding again. Going to go up to an even dozen if they can find the personnel. And every move they make is analyzed and dissected, both before and afterward. In addition to writing the reports of her own missions, she's reviewing the reports the other teams write -- and send back from the field. SG-1 is a First Contact Team, which means their missions are usually short (Does it bite? Will it explode? Can we use it? Let's go home.), but now that the SGC is expanding its mandate -- cultural and scientific exploration -- some of the other teams spend weeks in the field. And generate the inevitable paperwork.

Sammy opens her mouth to reply. Possibly to threaten her with Jack. Or Janet. When suddenly a voice from above interrupts them.

"Samantha Carter. I should have known you'd be here."

They both look up. There's a beat of silence.

"Jonas Hanson," Sammy says. She sounds surprised, tentatively pleased.

The speaker is one of those big blond men who looks as if he'd really rather be sacking an Irish monastery. Square-jawed. Blue-eyed. That whole steely look of cold command thing.

Like Jack. Not like Jack.

There's an interesting puzzle here she's not awake enough right now to figure out.

"Captain Jonas Hanson, Commander, SG-9," he says, sitting down next to Sammy.

"That's great," Sammy says. "You're going to love it here. Oh, Dani, this is Jonas Hanson. We used to know each other. Jonas, you've probably already met Dr. Jackson."

He glances at her and away dismissively, focused entirely on Sammy. "Yes, she gave the orientation lecture when I got here. 'Used to know,' Samantha? Oh, come now. That isn't nice."

That's twice now that he's called Sammy 'Samantha,' and she knows Sammy hates that.

"Well, it's been a while," Sammy says. There's a note of constraint in her voice now.

"Sure, but we're on the same team now," he says.

"Actually," Dani says innocently, "Captain Carter's on SG-1. I don't know if you'll be seeing that much of her."

That gets her Hanson's full attention, and she isn't sure she likes it. For just an instant the pale blue eyes are flat and cold. But then he smiles warmly.

"Oh, sure. I didn't mean that. You're on SG-1, too, aren't you, Dr. Jackson? It must be the chance of a lifetime, getting to travel through the Stargate and study alien cultures face-to-face. I hope you'll have the time to work with Lt. Frakes. He's our anthropologist. I'm sure he could benefit from your expertise. And I know he's really been looking forward to meeting you."

"I'd be happy to, Captain," she says.

It's her job, after all.

#

That weekend, at Sammy's place -- Sammy having dragged her out of The Mountain under only faint protest, since Sammy has offered to cook dinner -- she gets the whole story out of her.

Jonas is an old boyfriend. Fiancé, actually. As in, Sammy broke it off and gave the ring back. Sammy hasn't seen or heard of him in years -- since before she went to Washington -- they were an item when Sammy was just out of the Academy. Jonas was a few years older. Already in Black Ops.

Like Jack.

Sammy tells her Jonas was charming. But that he wanted too much control of her life.

"So what did you see in him?" Dani wants to know.

"I don't know," Sammy answers, sounding puzzled because it's all over now. "I guess I've always had a soft spot for the lunatic fringe. He was… He was charming."

Like Simon.

"That's good," Dani says encouragingly. "Charming is good."

But Sammy shakes her head, obviously worried about something. "I just wish… I just don't know… The Stargate Program, Dani. Jonas was Black Ops. Sometimes they can get a little crazy."

Jack was Black Ops. Jack wanted to kill all of them on Abydos.

"Well, Sammy, that's kind of typical of the government's evaluation of soldiers. The crazier they are, the more extreme situations they seem to be put into. And anyway, if Jonas wants you back now, he's going to have to fight Jack for you," she finally says.

It's not exactly what she means; she's still working out the puzzle in her mind of how Jonas Hanson is-or-isn't like Jack O'Neill. And certainly Sammy wouldn't want to transfer from SG-1 to SG-9. SG-1 is the Flagship Team; there's the prestige aspect of being on it, in addition to everything else. And she already knows how damned territorial Jack is about just about everything. From what Sammy has just said, Jonas was territorial too, but in a bad way.

Simon was like that. At the end.

She isn't quite ready to talk to Sammy about Simon Gardner.

Sammy laughs, startled. "Oh, I think he's probably moved on to other interests," she says.

#

_NOW:_

SG-1 goes to P4X-768. SG-9 -- Connor, Frakes, Baker, and Hanson -- went there two months ago. Six hours ago someone from SG-9 established a wormhole and transmitted SG-9's IDC, but nobody came through.

The initial MALP survey showed that P4X-768 has levels of UV radiation that make it practically unlivable. One day in the open guarantees anyone the sunburn of their life. A week in the open would be certain -- though probably slow -- death. Despite which, the MALP shows them a thriving forest. And SG-9 -- back when they were still sending reports -- said there were people here.

They go through loaded for bear -- a Field Remote Expeditionary Device -- FRED -- packed with survival gear. UV-screen tents, plenty of sunblock, medical gear. They're wearing special uniforms too, designed to screen as much solar radiation as possible. They have gloves.

It's shadowy under the forest canopy and there's a high mist. It doesn't matter. The sun will fry them even in a downpour. Mist is rising from the ground as well. It's very humid.

"For a place with as much UV radiation as this gets, the plant life seems to be doing very well," she says.

It looks like a tropical rainforest. Feels like one, too. She's just as glad she went with the bandanna instead of the boonie hat. She's already sweating, and she hates sweat trickling down into her eyes. Fortunately she's just taken her weekly allergy shots. No problems there.

"Apparently Abydos was the exception, not the rule, as far as trees are concerned," Sammy says, looking around.

Her voice is tight.

Of course they all know everybody on all the SG Teams. It's less than forty people even if you count the two Marine units. There are six archeologist/translators in her department attached to Gate Teams, including one very stunned recently-reactivated Marine Colonel, a former field interrogator specializing in modern Middle Eastern languages. She's busy learning _Goa'uld_ right now.

And it doesn't do to get too attached. Dani already knows this. Feretti's the only survivor of the original SG-2. They lost all of SG-4 a few weeks ago. Going through the Gate isn't safe.

But knowing them isn't like having been engaged. Having planned to marry. Having slept with and done all the couple-things.

And now coming to look for -- maybe -- the body.

"It is no accident," Teal'c announces, breaking into her morbid train of thought. "Many Stargate worlds were terraformed by the _Goa'uld_ , centuries ago."

Does he mean that the _Goa'uld_ actually _rebuilt_ the worlds they took their human slaves to? Teal'c rarely volunteers this sort of information. "Teal'c, do you know how many--"

But Jack, as always, isn't interested.

"Okay, let's take a quick look around the Gate before we move out to find SG-9."

"It can't be that far," Sammy says. Meaning the camp they must have set up. And come from, six hours ago.

Dani looks around. There's nothing to see but trees and ferns. Not even a path.

"I don't know. This Stargate is literally out in the middle of nowhere. I doubt it plays an active part in anybody's cultural…"

Jack walks off, without, as usual, letting her finish. She sighs and follows him.

#

They split up and circle the Stargate. It's what Jack calls a box search. They're looking for either SG-9 or signs of, well … anything.

"There _ought_ to be a road up here or something," she mutters to herself. She pokes the thick forest floor detritus with her walking stick cautiously, testing for snakes, but there's no sign of any. She hasn't even heard any birds, she realizes. Possibly nothing can survive here but plant life and -- possibly -- insects.

Where's Jack gotten to?

Suddenly she is grabbed from behind, pulled off her feet. She drops her quarterstaff. There's an arm across her throat, choking her.

She's about to kick back when she feels hard metal at her neck.

He's got her gun.

"Okay! Okay! Don't shoot!" she gasps in a strangled voice.

"That's very sound advice," she hears Jack say.

He sounds lethal.

The gun is removed from her neck. The arm loosens. She wriggles free.

It's a man in a tattered SGC uniform. He looks familiar.

"Colonel O'Neill?" he asks.

He sounds as if he's about to cry.

"Lieutenant Connor?" Jack asks.

Connor wavers on his feet. Jack catches him, steadies him.

Jack hands her back her gun. She picks up her quarterstaff.

They get Connor back to the Gate and call the others.

#

Jack wants to know -- reasonably enough -- what the hell is going on. They received a signal six hours ago, and nobody came through.

Connor's answer is one word: Hanson.

As in: Captain Jonas Hanson, Commander, SG-9.

Hanson has killed Frakes.

Connor leads them to the body.

What's left of the body.

Ashes. Bones. Dog-tags. Connor takes the dog-tags.

Hanson has set himself up as the god of the local inhabitants. Connor and Frakes tried to get back to the SGC to warn General Hammond. Frakes was caught and killed. His body was incinerated.

So Conner says, and she hopes that's how it really went.

And the scary thing is, apparently the natives aren't the only ones who believe that Jonas Hanson is a god. _Hanson_ also believes he's their god. Literally and absolutely.

Jack takes Sammy aside. Connor gets down on his knees and starts trying to bury Frakes' ashes with his bare hands. Dani gets to her feet and takes an entrenching tool out of Teal'c's pack. The work goes more quickly then. She can't imagine what they used as an accelerant; only pieces of the ribs are left, and a few fragments of the larger long bones. She can't find the skull anywhere. Possibly Frakes was beheaded and his head is elsewhere. She doesn't mention this to Connor.

Sammy is arguing with Jack; he wants her to go back to the SGC with Connor. Sammy doesn't want to go. Connor goes to join them. Dani finishes the burial herself as Connor joins Sammy in arguing with Jack.

She can hear the decision perfectly well.

They're _all_ going after Connor. And of course, Baker. Baker is still with him.

"To Oz," Jack says, and off they go. Moving in daylight because the enemy -- SG-9 is the enemy now -- will only move by night.

They're all going to fry.

#

And they do. It's like being in an oven. Worse than Egypt, which was -- at least -- a dry heat. Worse than Abydos, which was also dry. They're swaddled in high-tech layers of breathable up-to-the-minute fabrics, and she feels not just like she's in an oven, but a _microwave_ oven.

And the forest is absolutely silent. Sammy was right. It's creepy.

It gets on her nerves. The silence. The heat.

It's not really that it's hot -- which it is -- and humid -- which it certainly is -- but the way Sammy keeps reminding them that if not for their protective clothing and sunblock -- which Jack nags all of them, even Connor, to apply and keep re-applying; Connor is badly burned already -- they would all be receiving a potentially-lethal sunburn, even through the mist and under the trees. Dani wonders if this is what Earth was like in the Jurassic; solar radiation was stronger then.

Of course, she hasn't seen any dinosaurs here.

They've never, in fact, seen any dinosaurs through the Gate.

Pity.

Not her field, though.

And meanwhile, she wonders about Jack's obsession with _The Wizard of Oz._ Arguably his favorite movie in the whole wide world. Odd. It ought to be something like, like -- _Rambo._ Or _The Godfather._ Or even _Star Wars._ Teal'c adores _Star Wars,_ for reasons he can't -- or won't -- explain.

Sammy loves someone named Gene Kelly and so -- she told Dani this as if it followed logically -- her favorite movie is _Singing In the Rain._

But Jack's favorite movie is _The Wizard of Oz._

Dani has no favorite movie. Movies in general don't interest her very much. Neither does fiction. Modern fiction, anyway. (If it's a couple of thousand years old, though, it's interesting.)

Why is Jack's favorite movie _The Wizard of Oz?_ When she told him she'd never seen it, he made her watch it at once. She's now seen it a number of times, both because Jack views the film -- apparently -- on ceremonial occasions -- and because she'd watched it herself several times just to be sure of what she was seeing.

Although she still isn't. Because she's studying the film in relation to Jack O'Neill and she can't figure him out at all.

She wonders if Jonas Hanson has a favorite film and what it is.

Sammy probably knows. Dani knows this is not the time to ask her, and that the time is probably not ever going to come. Because SG-1 is going looking for Jonas Hanson and Robert Baker to do one of two things with them.

Bring them home to face court-martial.

Or kill them.

And either possibility really makes her wish she'd never stepped through the Stargate this morning at all.

#

At dusk they stop to build a camp. They're at the edge of the forest now, about an hour -- if that -- from the valley with the caves where the natives live. Since night is when the people here are active, they're careful: she and Sammy set up the tents, while Jack, Connor, and Teal'c set up an electronic perimeter. Sammy's been pumping Connor full of water and glucose all day, but he's still a little rocky, and he's refused to go to the one place he really needs to go -- the SGC -- and for some reason, Jack hasn't made him go.

The two of them are done first, and decide to eat. They've packed several different kinds of rations and since the temperature has dropped sharply at sunset she goes with something you can heat up, even if it is an MRE. Her cooking skills are up to their usual standard, though -- or maybe she should be blaming the government this time -- and she converts macaroni and cheese into soup.

To add insult to injury, it tastes like chicken.

She decides she isn't really hungry after all.

The other three come and join them by the fire.

"So, any indigenous lions, tigers, or bears I should be lying awake worrying about?" Sammy asks cheerfully. For some reason, the absence of birds -- she's remarked on it -- has really depressed her.

That's another reference to Jack's movie. _Lions and tigers and bears, oh my._

It would be nice if they were going to see a kindly wizard.

She suspects that both Jack and Sammy are thinking of the wrong book-into-movie. She can't quite pin down the reference they ought to be thinking of, though.

"The plant life is all that seems to live very long in the sun," Connor answers.

So … no.

"Now, how could something like this actually happen? The SG teams are supposed to be made of well-trained professionals," she says.

Well, okay, and people like her, who were pretty much dragged in off the street. But she has no intention of setting herself up as a god. Or goddess. But it's time to get answers out of Connor, answers about Jonas Hanson, and for some reason, neither Sammy nor Jack is asking any questions.

"Well when we first met the cave dwellers, they immediately bowed down to us, thought we were gods," Connor says. He looks confused by that, a little disgusted.

"Well that's a fairly common phenomenon, I mean uh, it happens," she says gently. She knows they covered this in Special Group Orientation and Training. She wrote the protocols herself.

"Except Hanson didn't deny it. Told us it might be safer if we allowed them to believe he was God for a while. He said it was the 'system of government' they needed to retake their world."

She isn't even looking at Jack and she can feel him twitch, even though he doesn't say anything. 'System of government?' A theocracy headed by the SGC? They never do that. SG Teams never do that. She's advised against it in the First Contact Protocols, and everybody knows it. When local populations mistake SG Teams for gods, the first thing they do is convince them otherwise.

"And, you were okay with that?" she asks carefully.

"Frakes was our anthropologist," Connor says, sounding miserable and baffled. "He agreed with Hanson that it might be safer. But the longer we stayed here, the stronger they believed. On our fourth or fifth week here, a young child wanted out of the caves, and must've gotten lost. Hanson went out after him. He was gone for two full days before he came back carrying the child, barely alive, in his arms."

"The cave dwellers must have loved him for that," Sammy says. She doesn't sound admiring. She sounds cynical. She sounds as if she thinks Jonas Hanson was grandstanding. Dani wonders if Hanson's rescue of the child really needed to take two full days.

"Yeah, they did," Connor says wearily. "He wasn't the same after that."

"You're saying that's what sent him over the edge? The sun?" Sammy asks. As if she's still hoping for some clear reason.

Connor shakes his head. "It wasn't any one thing. If it was, me and Frakes, we could have seen it coming. Done something about it before..." He stops.

"Before what?" Teal'c demands sharply.

Connor is obviously getting to the part he doesn't want to talk about, though considering that he's already talked about an SG commander killing one of his own men, trying to kill another, and taking his team outlaw, what can be worse?

"There were a few cave dwellers that got the idea that Hanson was just a man like they were, thanks to Frakes and me. He had them tied to stakes and left out in direct sunlight. If they lived seven days, they would be allowed back in the caves."

It's starting to be pretty obvious which god Jonas Hanson thinks he is.

"A number of significant Biblical events took place over the course of seven days," Dani says. The creation of the world, for one.

Sammy has covered her mouth with her hands.

Jack is regarding Connor expressionlessly. Connor is staring, but not at nothing. Connor is staring at the past. At the moment when he might have started to believe -- just a little -- that Jonas Hanson was, in fact, a god. A Biblical patriarch of wrath and destruction. And couldn't bear it.

"By then they were blind," Connor says. "Giant bleeding burns all over them. Just took them a little longer to die. Personally, I'd rather eat a bullet."

Like Frakes.

"I'll take first watch," Jack says quietly.

#

The night here is bright, even under the trees. The moon is full. Too bright to look at. So bright that she pulls off one of her gloves and uses it as a makeshift eyemask. She wonders if you can get moonburn here. It would be more comfortable inside the tent -- darker and warmer both -- but neither she nor Sammy wants to go inside. At the back of her mind is the feeling she wants to be able to run away quickly if she has to. Even though Jack is on watch and Teal'c doesn't really sleep at all.

She's sure she won't sleep.

But she does.

Jack's hand on her shoulder wakes her. "Let's go," he says quietly, leaning over her. "We've got company."

"Are you sure?" she says aloud, reaching for her glasses.

A dart thunks into one of the packing boxes, inches from her cheek.

"Pretty sure," Jack says, getting to his feet.

The perimeter alarm goes off. Sirens and lights flash. Jack, Sammy, and Teal'c open fire. Connor does as well. She can't see anything to shoot at -- though she sees shapes flit among the trees -- and so she doesn't. But when the others stop firing, Connor is gone.

The natives have taken him.

#

There are one or two dead bodies. She examines them. They don't give up any information that Jack finds useful. They're dressed very crudely, entirely in clothing and ornamentation of plant-based manufacture. Whatever ecosystem there is here does not contain any large mammals, or long-lived animals.

They drag the bodies a sufficient distance from the camp and cover them with leaves. Then Jack orders Sammy onto watch, and tells Dani to go back to sleep.

He points out that the enemy obviously has what they came for -- Conner. That they need to track Conner while the enemy is asleep, which means during the day. And they'll do better at that if they've had some sleep. Which he now intends to get.

She stands and stares at him as he lies down, obviously preparing to do just that. He tilts his boonie hat forward over his face.

"That's an order, Indiana. I _do_ still give the orders around here. Go back to bed. Get some sleep."

Is he an insane heartless thug? (Pick any two.) He's just killed someone. Or does he know something she doesn't?

She lies down. She'll do that much.

The smell of coffee wakes her.

Bad coffee, but still.

#

They pack up the camp but leave it -- and the FRED -- in place. They're near the valley Connor told them about. The one with the caves where the people live. The one where Captain Jonas Hanson, SG-9, has set up as God.

Today it's raining. Sammy says that doesn't matter; they'll still burn. Leaving the forest doesn't matter one way or the other, either.

Every place on her body that's covered in sunblock -- which is most of it -- itches.

Teal'c, they've learned on previous missions, can track anything through anything. He's following last night's tracks. They're following Teal'c. Jack is bringing up the rear. The technical term for that, she's learned, is 'walking drag.' It's the most dangerous position in the patrol, as the drag-man is the one most likely to be ambushed and killed so that the rest of the patrol can be overrun by the enemy.

She'd always thought she liked learning things. She's not sure she wants to learn the things she's learning now.

Sammy still can't believe that Jonas Hanson has gone so terribly wrong.

"He wasn't happy when I broke off the engagement, but he seemed like he'd really pulled himself together when we met up at Stargate Command."

Dani wonders if Simon has married Marion yet.

"Apparently not."

She also wonders if all the SG Teams are going to need to be psychologically re-evaluated. That's going to be a pain.

Suddenly Teal'c motions them to silence and stillness, then leads them to a bluff overlooking the valley, and they get their first sight of Jonas Hanson's world.

There's a road through the valley. They view it through binoculars. At the mouth of it are three stakes. Tied to them are three men. One of them is Connor.

"I'll be back in 30 minutes," Jack says.

"If you are intending to rescue Connor--" Teal'c begins.

"Not yet," Jack answers. "Captain? When the time comes, I'll need your help getting in the front door."

"I'm prepared for that, sir," Sammy answers steadily.

Jack leaves, circling around the edge of the valley. The three of them watch the carnage below.

Slow carnage, but carnage nonetheless. It's day, but the valley is filled with workers. Many of them work stripped to the waist. Their legs are bare. She's sure Hanson has them out here every day. In the sun. They're being worked to death.

"There will be none left to worship him if this continues," Teal'c says, echoing her thoughts.

"Like Abraham," she says. Abraham made a sacrifice of what he loved best unto the Lord. Surely Jonas Hanson loves his chosen people.

"Who is Abraham?" Teal'c asks. She's teaching him about Earth culture, but it's a slow process.

"Abraham is a Biblical figure. God tested his faith by instructing him to make a great sacrifice; his son Isaac."

Teal'c looks appalled for some reason.

"Did he sacrifice his son?" he asks urgently. As if the answer to the question actually matters.

"He… gave it a good shot before an angel stopped him … at the last minute."

Teal'c looks puzzled; she's probably been too colloquial again. She's about to explain -- they haven't gotten into Earth religions, but now she thinks she may have to start giving him a grounding in the major ones simply because they're threaded through so much of the culture -- when Sammy hands Teal'c the binoculars and stands up.

"Look over there," she tells him.

"Whoa. Hey. Where are you going?" Dani demands.

"I can't just stay here and watch Baker beat that man to death."

"You will be captured," Teal'c announces, as though he's noting the weather.

"Uh-huh," Sammy says calmly.

"Oh, wait-wait-wait -- you think that's a _plan?"_

"Dani, I can get to Jonas. That's what the Colonel was talking about," Sammy says excitedly.

"Well can you at least wait until he gets back?"

Because Jack might -- will -- talk Sammy out of this. At least Dani hopes so.

"That man could be dead by then." Sammy takes off at a jog.

"We should have stopped her," Dani says, sighing.

"We would have failed," Teal'c answers inarguably.

She knows he's right.

They peer down into the valley, looking for Sammy. They see her attack Baker.

Nice punch.

Jack gets back. "Conner looks bad, there's two guards but--"

The shouting in the valley attracts his attention. He sees Sammy giving herself up.

"Indy?" Jack says.

"Um…?" There isn't going to be any good way to explain this.

Jack sighs.

"Never mind. It's probably the only way in without a firefight anyway."

#

They watch for a while longer, moving out onto the bluff to get a better view, knowing that if Hanson is going to execute Sammy, he's going to make a public show of it. The way he's doing with Connor.

Even more of one. Because Sammy is SG-1. And his ex-fiancée. But Sammy doesn't reappear. So it looks like she's okay. For now.

"All right," Jack says. "We're going to have to get one of these guys alone and talk to him."

"He could betray us to our enemies," Teal'c says.

Jack and Teal'c are suddenly off in their own little world. Their own _scary_ little world. The one that she doesn't really understand. The one that's all about killing, and how to kill. But finding someone just to _talk_ to, that's certainly her business, and always has been.

"Maybe not," she says to Teal'c. "Maybe not."

One of the tribesmen is sneaking away from the others -- and they've already seen how harshly that's punished. Anybody willing to risk that should be willing to risk more.

"I think I've got just the candidate."

#

In anthropology it's called a soft approach. She comes up next to the man -- they later find out his name is Jamala -- as he's drinking at the nearby river and squats down beside him. She waves, then looks away. Too much eye contact is frightening at this stage.

Jamala turns to bolt, but Jack is on the other side. He turns completely around, but Teal'c is behind him.

"Shh," Teal'c says.

He tries out Earth slang at the oddest times.

They walk Jamala a little further into the trees. Jamala begins begging for his life almost immediately, though she assures him they have no intention of killing him. He crouches under one of the trees. Jack sits beside him, she kneels on the other side.

"Jonas said you would come. Devils with power like him -- here to destroy us."

"No," she repeats. "We're not devils. We're people like yourself. I'm Dani, this is Jack, and this is Teal'c." She pulls off her glasses with their clip-on sunshades and gestures to the others.

"Hi," Jack says, grinning amiably.

"Is he a Jaffa?" Jamala asks nervously. Meaning Teal'c.

"Yes," she says slowly.

Jamala panics all over again, begging again to be spared.

"No! It's okay! He's friendly! He's a friend!" She gets up and walks over to Teal'c, puts her arm through his.

"Smile," she tells him. "Look friendly."

She can't see his face, but Jack raises an eyebrow.

"You're gonna have to work on that a little bit," Jack says to Teal'c. It's Jack's calm, more than Teal'c's expression, she thinks, that reassures Jamala.

"How do you know he's a Jaffa?" she asks Jamala. "Have you seen one before?"

Jamala shakes his head. "No, just stories from when I was a young boy. Long ago. He is a servant of the old gods, yes?"

'Long ago' can't be more than twenty years, tops. Jamala is a young man.

And if either of them says 'yes' in answer to his question they're in for a long lecture from Teal'c on how the _Goa'uld_ aren't gods at all. She knows that perfectly well.

"Well, yes and no," Jack says easily. "He's from another place. So are we."

"Another place?" Jamala sounds both puzzled and interested.

"Earth," Jack says. Not that that's going to tell Jamala much -- but then, neither would a Gate address. "It's way, way out there. Where we're from. Jonas too. See, he's not a god. He's just a man. A _crazy_ man, granted, but--"

For once Jack is actually providing too much information. She can actually see Jamala's eyes start to glaze. Better than panic, though.

"Okay, okay. Jonas is _bad,_ " she interrupts.

Jamala starts to panic again, backing away against the tree.

"But it's all right," Jack says, soothingly. "He can't hear you right now. He can't hurt you."

"But he _will_ hurt you if you and your people continue to believe in him and follow him," she says firmly.

"No!" Jamala protests. "He will save us!"

"By forcing you and your people to labor in the sun until extinction?" Teal'c asks. From his tone, he probably knows more than a little about that. Forced labor. Racial extinction.

"If we finish the temple, Jonas will make the sky orange. It will be safe to come out in the light. There will be no more sickness," Jamala tells them desperately. She wonders just which of them he's trying to convince: himself or them.

"The sky? Orange?" Jack asks.

"The sky. Up there," Jamala says, pointing. Obviously the crazy foreigners-or-demons don't know what the sky is, at least in Jamala's opinion. She takes a deep breath and stares at her boots, doing her best to keep a straight face. Unfortunately Jack has noticed.

"Yeah, I know what the sky is. Why?"

Why are all these people willing to die just because Jonas has promised to turn the sky orange?

"When the sky is orange, it's good," Jamala says simply.

"And Jonas Hanson can make the sky orange?" Teal'c asks intently.

"Yes, he can," Jamala says.

"How do you know this thing?" Teal'c asks.

"He says he can," Jamala answers simply.

"Do you know what he's talking about?" Jack demands.

"I believe I do, O'Neill," Teal'c answers. "If you will provide me with drawing materials, Danielle Jackson, I believe I can make matters clearer."

She rummages through her pack and comes up with a notebook -- not her field journal -- and a couple of pencils. She hands them to Teal'c. She also finds some candy bars. They're fairly gooey -- there's no getting around the fact that chocolate melts, and the tropical chocolate that doesn't melt tastes like cocoa-flavored crayons -- but she unwraps a couple and offers one to Jamala. He's willing to eat it after she starts in on hers.

She's careful, and takes off her gloves, but the chocolate still gets everywhere. Jack gives her a look. She ignores him.

Teal'c finishes his drawing. She looks over his shoulder.

"What is it?"

"It is something I have seen the _Goa'uld_ use. It creates an energy force high in the air."

She's not completely sure what he's talking about. Sammy would know, and know what questions to ask, but Sammy isn't here.

"What, protection from the radiation like this planet's sun?"

"The device I saw appeared to turn the sky orange," Teal'c says.

And Jamala says that something that turns the sky orange will also make it safe to go out in daylight.

"The cave paintings tell of this," Jamala says. "They show this symbol."

"Have you ever actually _seen_ one of these things he's talking about?" Jack asks Jamala.

And Jamala nods.

"Where?" Dani asks.

In the cave, of course. The cave where Sammy is right now.

They have to rescue her and Connor, capture Hanson and Baker, and -- oh yes -- do something about the people of P4X-768, considering how many of them an SG team has killed and what a mess they're in here.

#

They take Jamala back to their campsite. He and Jack exchange clothes. Jack intends to sneak into the valley, and he can't do that in uniform.

His clothes swim on Jamala. Fortunately, Jamala's robes are loose and one-size-fits-all. Jack doesn't have a problem.

"I really should be the one to go," she says. She's closer to the size of the local population, for one thing.

"And the answer to that would be … no," Jack says.

"But--" she says. Jonas hasn't killed Sammy. Maybe he wouldn't kill her, if she's caught. She's fairly sure, though, that he would kill Jack.

"My job, Indy. And end of argument." He starts applying sunblock paste to his exposed skin.

"If Teal'c can turn on this _Goa'uld_ shield device, we could seriously undermine Hanson's power," she says. By undercutting his whole rationale for working the cave-dwellers to death.

"There is a problem with your plan, Danielle Jackson," Tealc' says. He's been lecturing Jamala about false gods, and getting a little farther with it than either she or Jack did. Possibly because Jamala is still terrified of him and fascinated by him at the same time.

"Wait. Don't tell me you don't know how to turn it on?" Jack demands.

"Yes, I can turn it on. But there must be two of them."

And Jamala has only said he's seen one.

"What?" she says blankly.

"The shield technology involves a force field being bounced back and forth between the two devices," Teal'c repeats.

"I have seen only the one, in his cave," Jamala confirms.

"Hanson may not know he needs the second device," she says. And if he doesn't, he's making promises he won't be able to keep.

Teal'c has retained her notebook and is drawing in it again.

"This is the valley. Here is the Stargate. Here is the temple." He traces each item as he names it. The images are crude but recognizable. She suppose that map-making is a military skill.

She and Jamala regard Teal'c's artwork. "Good drawing," Jamala says.

"Thank you," Teal'c answers gravely. "Where was the first device found?"

Jamala points to a place near the Stargate.

"Then the second device is…"

Teal'c indicates a point on his map all the way across the valley, above the place where the villagers are building their temple.

"You're assuming the _Goa'uld_ just shut these things down and left them in place," Jack says.

"That is correct," Teal'c answers.

"I'm sorry, Teal'c," Jack says. "Your calculations could be way off, and Connor doesn't have time for us to be wrong. I'll go after him. You try to find that second device. I'll try to meet you back here."

#

She, Teal'c, and Jamala head for the place Teal'c is guessing holds the second device. And they find it -- or, at least, they find a place that looks like the place the first one was found, according to Jamala. But assuming it's here, it's buried under solid rock, and they have no way to get to it.

Except, of course, for the fact that they have Teal'c and his handy staff-weapon.

She has long since learned that when Teal'c says 'stand aside' the best thing to do is run like hell. She grabs Jamala and gets quickly out of the way. Teal'c actually waits for the two of them to get clear before he fires.

A round hole appears in the stone. She goes up to it, looks down. There's a machine inside.

"I just hope it still works," she says.

It takes them a couple of hours to get it up out of the hole and clean it off. Neither she nor Teal'c knows whether it will work. While they were working, she sent Jamala back to their main camp to see if Jack was there; instead, Jamala comes back with the news that everybody is being forced to gather at the 'ring of the Gods' -- the Stargate.

That's not good.

#

She takes Teal'c's staff-weapon, gives Jamala her handgun, and they head for the Stargate.

When they get there, they see that the Stargate has been tipped over on its back. It's active. Baker is herding Jack and Connor into it at gunpoint. The other _Goa'uld_ machine, twin to the one they've just left behind, is right there, on the Gate platform.

"Wait! Stop!" She jumps up onto the edge of the Stargate, pointing the staff weapon at Baker.

But Baker doesn't stop. And she doesn't stop to think. She shoots Baker.

Jonas pulls a gun. Sammy kicks the gun out of Jonas's hand. He backhands her to the ground.

"Listen to me," Dani says desperately. "No matter what Jonas has shown you or… Or done for you, he is not a god!"

"Don't listen to her!" Jonas shouts. "They are demons! Agents of the devil! I am your savior!"

Okay, from now on the SGC is only hiring atheists.

"We're not demons, for crying out loud!" Jack yells. He sounds disgusted.

She jumps down off the outer ring of the Stargate. Picks up Baker's weapon. Waves it in the air.

 _"This_ is not magical power. It is called a gun, and it is a machine." She drops the clip -- Jack has taught her how to do that much on practically everything that goes bang at the SGC. The villagers gasp. "Just a machine -- a tool!"

"Do as I say or you will all die!" Jonas bellows.

"Do as he says and you _will_ die!" Jack shouts back. Which is probably a little subtle for these people right now.

"Do not betray me after all I have done for you!" Jonas bawls. I promised you I would bring you out of the caves and into the light. Today I fulfill that promise!"

Ignoring all of them -- including her and Jamala, which is really annoying, as both of them are armed -- Jonas turns his back on them to face the _Goa'uld_ machine. He's clutching Sammy against him as if he's some sort of bad movie villain and she's the girl hostage.

"Behold! The magical power that belongs to your god!" He turns on the machine. "I give you the sun! I give you the world!"

A beam of clear orange light shoots straight up from the top of the device.

Nothing else happens.

"I can make it work and so can you!" Dani says. "Just like I can fire this staff. Now I'll show you how. There are two devices, and both must be turned on for the shield to work. Watch."

She aims the staff weapon straight up and fires.

At the other end of the valley, this is the signal Teal'c has been waiting for.

He switches on the other machine.

First there's a thin line at midheaven -- like a rainbow -- and then the whole sky turns orange, bathing the forest in an intense sunset-colored light. The cave-dwellers stare into the sky, and Dani can almost feel the moment at which Jonas Hanson's power over them is broken.

So can he.

"I'm taking you with me," he snarls.

He's talking to Sammy. Still clutching her, he makes a run for the ramp built out over the Stargate. Obviously intending to throw himself into the event horizon.

But Jack has freed his hands. He knocks Connor off the stone causeway and lunges. Not for Jonas, but for Sammy.

The cave-dwellers are the ones who get their hands on Jonas.

And whatever else they believe -- or don't believe -- about gods and demons today, apparently they still do believe one thing. That the Stargate is a doorway to Hell, and that Jonas is worthy of going there. Because before any of the rest of them can do anything, they pick Jonas up and throw him in.

He's dead now. Dead in the way he intended for Connor and Jack. And her and Teal'c, probably. And maybe even Sammy in the end.

Crushed against the closed iris at the other end.

#

Jack unties Sammy. Dani goes to untie Connor. Everybody else is clustered around Jamala, demanding to know if it's all true. If they're safe now. If the sun-sickness really won't come. And if it's true that they -- she, Jack, Sammy, Teal'c, and Connor -- aren't demons after all.

She knows she should be trying to smooth things over. She talks to people. That's what the SGC hired her to do. Instead she goes over and stares down at Baker.

She didn't think. She was holding the staff weapon and she fired. Almost as if she were finishing an action begun on Abydos, when Ra wanted her to execute Jack, Feretti, and Kawalsky.

She hadn't fired then, because Jack would have died.

If she hadn't fired now, Jack would have died.

She's killed a man.

Probably not her first. It's a little disturbing that she isn't sure.

When they fought Ra's Jaffa in the temple on Abydos, she might have killed some people. Maybe in the dungeon on Chulak, too.

She killed Sha're.

And she _definitely_ killed Baker.

"You okay?" Jack asks.

She looks up. He looks a little worried.

"Oh, fine. We're gonna have to bury him. Unless we're taking him back?"

"We'll bury him when Teal'c gets here," Jack says. "We're gonna be here for a day or so. Make sure everything settles out all right. Now c'mon. I think we better talk to these folks."

She isn't sure what she says. Two or three of her usual prepared speeches: the 'we are not gods' speech, in several of its variations. The explanation of what the Stargate is, and their relationship to it. And -- when Teal'c finally arrives -- she goes through her explanation of the fact that he's a friend and an ally, even though he resembles the servants of the false gods who terrorized and abandoned them.

By that time the sun is setting. The moon -- when it rises -- will be orange.

Jack tells her and Carter to get the cave-dwellers back to their village while there's still light to see by, so they go. She guesses there's enough sexism left in the Air Force so the men get to bury the bodies and the women … don't.

#

They pick up flashlights at the camp, which is a good thing, because by the time they've escorted the villagers all the way to the valley -- answering as many questions as they can along the way -- it's dark. The villagers quickly find and light torches, and the valley fills with light, but the two of them are just as glad to have flashlights, not torches, for getting back to the camp.

Jack and the others aren't there yet.

"All in a day's work," Sammy says. Her voice sounds a little ragged.

"Yeah," Dani says. She's been picking up felltimber between the valley and here. She drops it now into their firepit and turns to face Sammy. She puts a hand on her arm.

"I'll make the fire if you cook," she says quietly.

While they wait for the others -- Jack always finds something interesting to do in the woods at night, but she isn't worried, as Teal'c is with him -- Sammy fills her in on everything that happened after she was captured.

#

First Baker brought her into a cave where Jonas was reclining at his ease -- attended, of course, by three women. He'd told her he was doing everything here on P4X-768 for the good of the people. He was going to be their savior. Apparently this was nothing new in their relationship.

Jonas took her on a tour of his cave. The walls were covered with cave paintings. Large animals. Orange sky: the _Goa'uld_ 'sunscreen' device. Of course Jonas didn't know what they meant. And of course he didn't ask anyone. A god was supposed to be all-knowing. And Jonas was really getting into the god role.

And then Jonas revealed that he had the actual device. He couldn't turn it on, of course. He'd been hoping for Sammy to show up and make it work. He'd orchestrated Frakes' and Connor's escape just so that they'd contact the SGC, assuming -- in whatever passed in his mind for thought -- that SG-1 would be sent to investigate. Because he'd wanted Sammy. Not for what they'd been together, but for her mind.

Not in a good way, of course.

And if Sammy didn't -- or couldn't -- do what he wanted, he'd arrange for every last native -- and presumably Baker -- to die before he killed the two of them.

It was actually -- apparently, if you were really smart in the way Sammy is really smart -- a simple matter to make it work. But she hadn't made up her mind that she would. That was when Baker came in with Jack under guard.

One of the things Jack had taken from the camp -- they'd retrieved it from one of the bodies they shot the night before -- was a blowgun and a few darts. Connor had told them the darts weren't poisonous. They'd simply knock you out for a while. The natives had used to use them for hunting. Apparently there'd used to be something to hunt.

So when Jack entered the quarry, he used the blowgun and darts to take out a couple of the guards. He freed Connor. And they didn't get away. To keep him from being shot immediately, Sammy turned on the other 'sunscreen.'

Unfortunately, seeing it light up seemed to strip away Jonas' last vestige of sanity. He forced all the people -- and Connor, Jack, and Sammy -- to go to the Stargate. There, he had the people lever it onto its side, and had them build a sort of stone gangplank out onto the middle of it, using slabs of stone they'd brought with them. Then he started to preach.

About salvation. About burying the doorway -- the Gate. About sending the demons back to Hell.

He dialed Earth's address. That was when Sammy realized that Jonas was going to send Jack and Connor through. But without transmitting their IDC first.

They'd die.

#

She holds Sammy's hand as they stare into the fire. Previous missions have gone bad in interesting ways, but not quite like this. This was a little like watching a car crash in slow motion. Maybe crossed with one of those magic mirrors that shows you your evil self.

Because SG-9 is their worst nightmare. The rogue SG Team, the one that plays god somewhere out here. Or, just as accurately, plays _Goa'uld_ , because isn't that just what Jonas Hanson was doing?

"Lucy! I'm home!"

Jack strides into the clearing. He's dressed in his own clothes again. Teal'c, Jamala, and Connor are with them.

"There's soup, sir."

Sammy had gone through the stuff they'd packed and came up with soup. Along with the crackers from several of the MREs, it's not too bad. Dani's made coffee. It's instant, cannibalized from the MREs as well. But she's made it extra strong and left it to simmer. In her opinion, it's not that bad.

They give Jamala dinner -- he likes the soup, though not the coffee -- and tell him they'll come to the cave in the morning before they leave, in order to say goodbye.

They give him a flashlight and some food supplies to take with him.

The moon's up. It _is_ orange.

Though Jamala didn't like the coffee, Jack and Connor both do. Teal'c, as usual, sticks to water. She's washed out and is packing up the mess kits -- Sammy cooked, so she's cleaning - when Jack says they might as well abandon everything except the FRED and the munitions in place. The locals can use the equipment -- food, medical supplies, tents, bedrolls -- and Jack says it's a grand old military tradition. Whatever that means.

By now, she isn't sure she cares. Unless the natives are going to rise up and smite them -- she isn't quite ruling that out – all the dangerous stuff seems to be over. And she was never in danger. Only Jack and Sammy were.

But she's really tired of P4X-768.

So she turns in early. Tonight she's even willing to sleep in one of the tents. If Jack is feeling whimsical, he'll make her take dawn watch. She's not a morning person and he knows it.

But she wants solitude more than sleep, really, and so she's wide awake when Jack and Sammy settle down outside the tent to have a little chat. Apparently there was more going on with Jonas than Sammy told her. Sammy tells Jack that at one point she had a gun on Jonas. Had the chance to shoot him -- the same way Dani shot Baker -- and she didn't.

"Killing a man is no badge of honor, Captain," Jack says.

"I know," Sammy says. Sounding as if she doesn't.

"Look, I'm no expert on this book Hanson was so fond of. I generally only pay attention to one commandment, and I think it's the first."

"'I am the Lord your God, and you shall have no other Gods before me?'" Sammy asks, puzzled.

"Okay, so it's not the first one. I'm talking about the 'No Killing' one. No matter what the reason, every time you break it, you take one step closer to Hanson."

She stares at the ceiling of the tent, wondering if she's becoming Jonas Hanson. Or if Jack thinks she is.

And how many people she has to kill to get there.

#

The next day they spend the morning with the cave-dwellers. Jamala's people are stunned by their new ability to walk around unscathed under the open sky. They will probably even -- eventually -- finish the temple. Certainly the days of terrible overcrowding in the caves is over.

The four of them -- Teal'c abstains -- make some suggestions about new shelter methods -- the former cave-dwellers may now be safe from the sun, but it still rains a lot here - and lead Jamala and several others back to the camp where they show them what they're leaving behind -- including an axe and a couple of machetes.

Then they -- and the villagers -- go to get the Gate set upright again.

It takes a while. But they're finally ready to go. Sammy dials home and sends the FRED -- and the munitions -- through. Jack's careful about that.

She knows Baker's buried around here somewhere. She wonders where.

Jack asks her if she thinks they ought to bury the Gate again. Teal'c doesn't think the _Goa'uld_ will ever be back here again, though.

She wonders, herself, if they should suggest to General Hammond that the SGC come back here and check on these people someday, but no. They've already done enough here. More than enough.

Jamala has pretty much designated himself as the new tribal leader here. She hopes he'll do a better job than Jonas Hanson did. But then, almost anybody would. He shakes hands with Jack, saying goodbye.

"The world outside the caves … it's very big, yes?"

Jack doesn't quite look as if he knows how to answer that. Well, that's her job. Ambiguity.

"Yeah," she says. "It's bigger than you can imagine."

And if Jamala and his people are really lucky, they'll never find out exactly how big it really is.

She waves, and the five of them step through the horizon.

#

Debriefing is entertaining. An SG Team went crazy. Murdered one of its members. Tried to kill another one. Enslaved a native population.

The debriefing takes a long time.

She's mildly entertained to discover that none of the three who were there -- not Sammy, not Connor, and not Jack -- saw her shoot Baker, at least not from their reports. Although Jack and Conner watched her do it and she's pretty sure she was in Sammy's line of sight.

If it were really illegal for her to have done it, Jack would have found some way to warn her, she thinks.

She tells General Hammond about it herself.

All he says is that he's sorry she had to do it. They move on. And then all that's left is the written reports. Bidding farewell in her heart to beautiful P4X-768. And -- sometime in the next few weeks -- orienting the members of the new SG-9.

But she still has unanswered questions.

#

A couple of weeks later, she works up the nerve to ask one of her questions of Sammy.

They're at Sammy's house again. Sammy's still convinced she can teach her to cook. Dani doubts it. You have to have interest and ability first. Cooking is interesting, but it is time-consuming and seems to require a kind of luck she doesn't possess. Or too much concentration. She has enough things to concentrate on, in her new life.

And many of the things she learns -- cooking would not be one -- are things she doesn't want to learn. But there's one thing that, while supremely useless, is something she somehow feels she _needs_ to learn. Even though she cannot see how the information can ever be of any use to her. Or teach her anything.

Despite all of this, she asks.

"Jonas' favorite movie?" Sammy asks. She smiles bitterly. "'Are we not men?'"

Dani looks blank. _"Apocalypse Now?"_ she guesses. Based on the Joseph Conrad novel _The Heart of Darkness._ And bearing an uncomfortable resemblance to their recent mission on P4X-768. It took her this long to track down and match the reference, and she's proud of herself for being this topical.

But Sammy smiles. "No. Jonas was a fan of classic horror movies, believe it or not. That's from _The Island of Dr. Moreau._ It's from a book by H. G. Wells. A man experiments on animals. Makes them -- almost -- human. He wants them to worship him as their creator. Their god. They rebel, and kill him instead."

"Oh."

Well, Jonas is dead now.

At least Jack didn't have to kill him. And Sammy didn't kill him either. The only one who killed anybody on P4X-768 was her.

She's not like Jonas. And neither is Jack.

She's pretty sure she's worked out the difference between Jack and Jonas now.

Jack kills people. Killing is a tool. He can put it down and walk away from it the same way he can set down his gun, or his knife.

Jonas was a killer. Killing was his religion, of which he was both high priest and god. He couldn't separate himself from the killing any more than he could walk away from the part of himself that killed and leave it behind, because killing wasn't a tool to him. It _was_ him.

But killing is dangerous, like fire. And if it's something you can't let go of, it will destroy you.

Like Jonas.

Not like Jack.

Having gotten at least one thing right satisfies her.

"Does it matter?" Sammy asks, sounding curious.

Not any more.

"I just had this theory, you know, that everybody has a favorite movie, and I know it's a little ghoulish – okay, a _lot_ ghoulish – but I wondered--"

 _"You_ don't."

Have a favorite movie.

"I could," she answers defensively.

"Dani, you would have to _watch_ movies to have a favorite movie."

"I could do that," she says, and Sammy grins, as if Dani has just walked into a trap.

"Fine. I'll pick the movies, and you watch them."

"Um…" When is she going to have the time to watch movies?

"You promised," Sammy says.

When the hell did she promise?

"Hey, you do, and I'll take you for a ride on my bike."

She's seen Sammy's bike. Bikes, actually. That would be both cool -- Jack's word -- and scary. More cool, though.

"I don't have to pick this favorite movie in a hurry, do I?" she asks. Bargaining.

Sammy grins. "Just as long as you watch the movies. And I'll expect full reports."

Well at least it will be something to annoy Jack with while they're walking from one place to another offworld. And maybe she can talk Sammy out of it eventually.

Or maybe she can have Jack pick the movies.

Because that could be interesting.

###

**Author's Note:**

> Yes! Ivory gets the DVD set! And starts tidying up canon, because if SG-6 had been on an extended mission to the Microwave Planet, of course I had to deal with Jonas Hanson's (off-screen) arrival at the SGC.
> 
> This is the last full remix I wrote (chronologically; the last one in the series so far is "Solitudes"), my ambition to re-do all five seasons' episodes in order having fallen by the wayside early on, as I was beguiled by the lure of alternate universes. 
> 
> A number of scenes have been moved to more logical points in the story: Sam's discussion of her relationship with Jonas; Jack and Sam's discussion about killing. And as usual, I did a lot of cleanup/fix-up/explanation of what's actually on screen...
> 
> My favorite Daniverse-specific add-in is the whole discussion about the movies, and Sam's Clever Plan. (Honest, I thought Jonas's favorite movie would be APOCALYPSE NOW, too.) Dani is still trying to figure out Jack, the military, and her feelings about violence (in no particular order). She isn't having a lot of luck so far.


End file.
